Last night marked the first practice of the A-Team, my new hockey team. After a horrible season with the Snow Cones, I decided it was time to branch out and start a team that was focused more on teamwork than on just showing up once a week, playing a shitty game and going home. I tried to choose carefully, basing my player invitations on kindness and a willingness to listen (if you're on a team, it's expected that someone may say something like "hey, play up a little so I can feed you a pass" without getting a response like "FUCK YOU!"). I had no expectations about skill level, just went for the most receptive, nicest people.

And I got lucky! Our team is pretty fast, pretty skilled and are all very nice. We scored a great coach, who all of the players listened to and respected. She worked us quite hard and was very impressed at the skill level.

Just after everyone suited up, I looked around and thought "I made this happen." Then I looked up again and there was my friend Nadine and her nice man Bob, who wants to get back into skating again after a 12 year lapse. They watched part of the practice, it was really cool to have friends there watching something I'd put together. Thanks for sticking around!

Here's to a kick-ass first season for the A-Team!